:: in.a.mirror.dimly :: A theology and culture blog with the Bible in one tab and a news feed in the other.

Lately Willow Creek has talked about Christians learning how to be “self-feeding.” The premise is that as Christians grow in the Lord, they are studying the Bible and taking responsibility for their learning. The problem is that personal Bible study and even much of the teaching in church can have the adverse effect of fattening us up with knowledge.

First of all, when I think of Christians who are self-feeding, I immediately think of a person studying the Bible by himself/herself. Theology is first of all a practice for the whole church to do together, and so even the theological conclusions of our personal study should be shared with other Christians, fellow bloggers, or some other gathering of friends and fellow believers.

And even if we proceed to become self-feeding, there is also a word of caution about feeding in general. I know that many Christians choose churches based on whether or not they are “fed” good teachings. This is well and good provided that the meal is not the main event.

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You know who these people are. They’re the ones you sort of know, as in their name and a few details of their miserable lives. They see you coming and use that same line every time to strike up a conversation.

And the conversation is pointless, meandering, and happens to be all about them. There is nothing you can do for these people, so why bother listening. You have much better things to do. Escape, all  you can think about is your escape. And so you learn to avoid them, look down at the right moment, or pick up your pace to avoid being trapped.

I do this sometimes. And then I think about Jesus and Paul. Paul talks about God using the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, but I don’t think that applies to this situation because these people are just dull and annoying, somewhere in between the wise and foolish which leaves me in the clear. OK, so maybe not, but that’s how I think about it.

But what can I do for these people? I really don’t want to be a friend. Really. I want boundaries. I want distance. I want to do my own thing and to be left alone.

Driving home today I had the thought: I’m a follower of Jesus, and so I don’t have the luxury of boundaries. I didn’t realize that when I prayed the “salvation” prayer. Yet another example of the bait and switch tactics of our contemporary gospel presentations that leave that whole bit about God’s Kingdom out.

Agh. So I need to rethink my policy toward certain people. I asked God where I can start, and I immediately thought of Anne Lamott’s rule for life, “Don’t be an asshole.” Well, OK, I can handle that because I’m not an asshole …

Oh right, everything I just confessed seems to say otherwise.

I suppose one place I need to begin is just slowing down, stopping to let these people catch up and say their bit. I could actually listen. I could pray for the right words to say back to them. That’s a start.

Of course I have a writing deadline tomorrow, so being nice is out. How’s Wednesday?

Over the past week or two I have noticed a trend of sorts. I could say this in any number of ways, but the gist is this: the more scripture I read, the less likely I am to sin. That’s a bit simplified, since I really noticed radical differences in my state of mind, attitude, and thoughts as well.

I shouldn’t be surprised by this. If I read the Bible even more than I currently do, I probably would have remembered that Psalm 119:9 says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word” (NIV). The Bible itself knows that there is something spiritually beneficial about reading the Bible.

While traveling out to Ohio last week I was pulled out of my Bible and breakfast routine, and therefore didn’t place myself into the story of scripture where God is at work in humanity. From there it was a simple matter of “out of sight, out of mind.” Familiar sins of anger and selfishness bubbled to the surface in many ways, even if I did my best to keep them bottled up.

Now that I’m back home and into my routine of reading through 3-6 chapters each morning, I can’t help but feel so refreshed and renewed. I’m far from perfect, but there is a greater protection that I have when I’m immersed in the world of the Bible and let that direct my course throughout the day.

Of course I’m bound to forget this lesson and perhaps a year from now I may end up writing the same exact post …

A friend asked me this question today, and in a rare moment of clarity, I actually came close to putting my thoughts and feelings into something resembling a proper statement.

What am I looking for in church? I’m looking to meet with God along with fellow Christians. Arriving at such a simple statement has been a daunting process, since church has become so much more than an encounter with God, if we even get around to actually meeting God at all.

Before I fall into the “I’m emerging and want to whine about the church” trap, I should probably flip my question around a little. What is God looking for in church? Or perhaps we can whittle it down to, “What is God looking for?”

Perhaps the simplest answer is: “us.” I may flatter myself and the rest of humanity with such a statement, but when I look at the message of scripture and the experiences of Christians through the Holy Spirit, it seems that God is quite interested in keeping in touch with us.

And if meeting God–by that I mean a real life-changing, spiritual encounter through the Holy Spirit–is most important, then what does that look like and what does that mean for church meetings? Are we a little too focused on the talk and not so much on the practice of Christianity in our meetings?

The verse that keeps coming to my mind regarding church is 1 Corinthians 4:20 “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” I’m currently wrestling what that “power” looks like for a gathering of Christians.

The other day I heard that a pastor had an affair in a church attended by many people I know. Though unfamiliar with those involved in the actual incident, it certainly hit closer to home because I spent time in this church and at one point in time hoped to be on staff there.

What is it with pastors and affairs? I did a brief search through Google and found all kinds of stories about pastors having affairs with secretaries, the wives of other ministers, and who knows who else. It makes me wonder if this is just plain and simple sin that has to be dealt with, or is sin working within our system of ministry to crack people. I’m sure there are plenty of other options and combinations, but I’d like to muse on whether or not our ministry paradigm contributes to the problem.

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An ideology is defined as: 1 : a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture 2 : a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture. In many ways, the Christian Gospel about God’s plan to redeem creation through the death and Resurrection of Jesus is an ideology since it redefines so much of our world. Nevertheless, the Gospel does not stop there.

An ideology is often linked with control. Converting someone to an ideology implies a measure of control under a new system of thinking, and Christians are often viewed in a negative light because they are perceived as desiring to control people by proselytizing to their own ideology.

A Christian can win friends easily by never sharing the Gospel or trying to convert any one. In fact, the number one critique I hear of Christians is that they try to convert people to their way of thinking. Hence, the labels closed-minded, intolerant, and controlling are plastered onto Christians.

But is the Gospel more than an ideology, a way to win people over to the Christian fold for the sake of power and influence? Sometimes the church is guilty of reducing it to little more than this, but in reality the Gospel is supposed to be good news. What’s so good about it?

I prefer NT Wright’s way of framing the Gospel: God is putting the world to rights. The Gospel means we can be right with God, with one another, and with the rest of creation. God’s plan is for people to join him in bringing spiritual and physical freedom.

In God’s coming kingdom there will be peace and an end to all manner of suffering. God will know his people intimately. The Gospel concerns the partial manifestation of this wonderful time.

More than just a way of explaining our world, the Gospel opens our eyes to a whole new world that has already begun to take root in creation. When a Christian shares the Gospel and invites others to join in, it’s an invitation to step into the freedom of God’s new work.

If you’ve had enough with the news about sectarian strife and the anger among nations and people groups, it’s time to tune in on what God is doing in one corner of the world. As part of his new creation and coming rule on earth, the Lord is breaking down our man-made cultural barriers and forming a new people: his own.

Under God’s rule ethnic background means nothing and there is a chance to heal previous animosity and division. One example of this is how he’s healing Iraqis and Israelis through the work of Shevet Achim.

Take a moment to read the story of several Iraqi mothers who were brought to Israel with their sick children by Shevet Achim for treatment in Israeli hospitals. In the midst of this healing among physical bodies and nationalities, Jesus shows up, literally.

This healing of nations is a sign that the peace of God as they welcome him into their lives. Come Lord Jesus.

JR has a compact list of questions that have come up with someone who would not describe herself as a Christian. Here they are:

If you could ask God one question what would it be?
What comes to your mind when you think of Jesus?
What comes to your mind when you think of Christians?
What confuses you the most about Jesus?

These get to the heart of some major issues today. People generally hold some views on God that may or may not be based on anything that claims authority such as say, the Bible. It’s good to talk through these notions.

Also, it’s important to work through the disconnect that people have with Christians and to gently tap on the conclusion that while Christians can do some boneheaded things sometimes, they’re generally nice enough people who really do want to be like Jesus . . . someday.

Julie found this show in the archives of This American Life all about prayer. The question driving the show is, “Can Christians and the secular world understand each other?” The lady in the first half of the show thinks they are able, but she meets a pastor who disagrees. During a visit to Colorado Springs and New Life Church, Ted Haggard’s church incidentally, she confronts much of what there is to love and hate about Christianity.

For my part, I believe there are certain things about Christianity and the spiritual realm that are really hard to explain to someone who is an atheist, agnostic, etc. God very dramatically healed an area of my life during vacation last week–more about that another time–and I don’t know exactly how to explain it to someone who doesn’t believe God is capable of tinkering with our lives.

During most of the show I kept feeling like some prayer warriors were going out and doing Christian-like things, but were not always connected with God and where he’s at.

There surely were exceptions, but on one occasion three Christians walk behind a school and begin praying where the drama kids used to hang out. The drama kids were . . . LIBERAL . . . they accepted “new ideas” and were “open.” I wanted to drop my head into the dish water right then (I was doing dishes while listening to the show) and end it all.

Agh! The stupidity is stifling. The prayer that follows this indictment is equally painful to hear. Thankfully the show cuts it short.

I’m not an expert on prayer and many of the people featured in this show did seem to be in tune with God and have a relationship with him, but I keep coming back to this: prayer gets us on the same page as God. Sometimes I sensed an agenda behind the prayers and that left me uncomfortable. It was a blend of marketing techniques and spirituality that left me dry and thirsty for something real.

Prayer involves pushing ourselves to God and letting him take over from there. I’m not sure if we can truly pray strategically. At some point the wheels fall off.

In the final analysis, I think the first half of this show introduces some parts of Christianity in a very accurate light. Many of the Christians display true love and desire to serve God. But sometimes when they prayed, I cringed.

Technorati Tags: prayer - this+american+life

Sacraments blend the physical world with a spiritual reality. Baptism is the dying of the old and the rebirth of a new life under God’s rule. The breaking of bread and consumption of wine and bread remembers the death of Jesus and the life he imparts to his united Church. These sacraments lend a glimmer of the holy to dull, everyday activities.

As part of his plan to redeem our world, God is interested in converting far more than bread, wine, and pools of water into holy portals. Far from being locked up in a church until he’s brought out for Sunday morning play time, God wants to be on the prowl with us, sharing each moment and adding his own unique message and blessing. I had this sense while digging weeds out of our flower bed.

I don’t necessarily garden because I love plants. I enjoy pretty flowers around my house as much as the next guy, but I dug huge flower beds for a more practical reason: reducing the hard areas to mow. By digging out several tight corners and dumping in flowers I made it that much easier to chop down our lush two acres of lawn.

Despite my questionable motives, I’ve grown attached to our flower beds and recently found the mass invasion of weeds in our backyard bed a nuisance. While praying on the back deck and surveying the civilization of weeds that sprouted amidst the blue, yellow, and red flowers—don’t ask me the actual names of these things—I sensed that a little sacrament was in the works.

The frantic pace of my life was allowing all manner of weeds to grow, and I haven’t taken time for regular spiritual maintenance. By weeding the garden I gave my mind a rest, stepped back from all of the household projects demanding my attention, and let God begin his work on my life again. Each chunk of weeds I dug out was in itself an act of repentance, recognition that all in my life is not how it should be.

Julie stepped outside, looked over the clean, freshly mulched bed, and exclaimed, “You’ve been working really hard on this.”

“No,” I replied, “I was just resting.”

I’ve been a little rough on the Prez lately. I’m not a fan of political blogs, so I’ll keep this brief and then move on to something else.

From the standpoint of morality and justice I believe that America has committed a grievous wrong against the Iraqis. The regular features on NPR by Iraqis tell the stories of people living as prisoners in their own home. Those who flee as refugees lose everything, are sometimes forced to work in horrible conditions, and are in a position to be exploited.

Whether or not you believe the US was justified in attacking Iraq–we weren’t by the way, but I’ll let others disagree–we can all agree that the Kindergarten rule holds true, “If you make a mess, clean it up.”

America has some repenting and repairing to do. One of the ways I believe the church can repair some of the damage our misguided foreign policy has done is by supporting Iraqi families who are traveling to Israel for open heart surgery. That sort of kills a bunch of birds with one check.

I’ve been supporting Shevet Achim lately and I’m really happy to see all of the good work they do. I encourage you to find out what one group of Christians is doing to bring reconciliation to the world.

In other news, the sudden influx of blogging is due to the sudden influx of internet in my life. Not in my home unfortunately, if you thought satellite internet was slow, you should see how slow the customer service is.

Thankfully Manchester has plenty of internet for the masses. Blogging will be spotty until they fix my wayward dish.

Though my internet connection has thwarted me at every turn, there has been some progress in the “writing” part of my life and I hope to spring some big news in the near future. Until then, my short story “A Bittersweet Land,” a memoirish sort of essay on the Israelis, Palestinians, et. al., is now available in the Southshire Pepperpot.

The cafe is about to close, and so must this blog post. Sigh. It’s been fun while it lasted.

Sometime after college I figured out that scripture memorization is a lost cause for me. It’s quite simply one of the most demoralizing things for me. I’ve fasted for days, prayed for hours, read the Bible, journaled, and done all kinds of other disciplines.

My memory fails me.

So I did a little searching, trying to figure out what was going on. What I found is that I’m a big-picture person, the kind who prefers writing essays instead of multiple choice. After being challenged by another Christian to read five chapters of the Bible every day (trust me, I’m not 100% on that!), I found something.

I call this kind of reading “immersion.” When I read five chapters of the Bible, I dig into a nice chunk of the story and bend my mind into a Biblical framework.

Since I’m reading such a large section at each sitting–at least when compared to my standard “chapter a day” approach in the past–I have to spend a lot more time engaging the verses. In the process I find myself–surprise, surprise–memorizing scripture.

More importantly, when I throw myself into the world of the Bible I am often challenged and God tweaks my fragile world, challenging me with his truth. The Biblical world invades my own and leaves its mark, and part of that residue is scripture memorization, or at least a decent paraphrase.

Immersion is not “the way” to read or memorize the Bible, but for a wordy, narrative-loving guy like myself, it is refreshing to find other ways to deposit the scripture into my mind.

Technorati Tags: Bible - scripture - memorization

Well, it’s actually not all that dangerous, but bear with me and my provocative title . . .

It’s generally assumed among many Christians that one must have a “life verse” or at least pocket an index card with some passage of scripture scribbled out for memorization. Committing a chunk of the Bible to a slab of one’s mind can be a very good thing, but we often overlook the dangers that may arise.

First of all, scripture memorization can become a barometer of one’s relationship with God. Can’t discipline yourself to recall that slim block of text? Then you must not be very zealous for God. It sounds silly to say it, but I know it happens far more often than we would like to admit.

Secondly, some people are not wired along the lines of memorization. I confess, I’m like that. I’m much more concept driven. I had to claw and scratch for B’s in my science classes if I was lucky because I couldn’t unravel the facts I rolled into my head.

Third, it is very easy to hack a small verse of scripture out of context and apply it to any situation that comes down the pike. Come on, I know you have that verse posted somewhere about God supplying all of “your” needs from his “glorious riches.”

Having noted a few of the problems we face when memorizing scripture, I’ll step back and say that memorizing the Bible is wonderful. David–as in King David, the Psalmist–was bonkers about it, commanding Solomon to know the Law of the Lord, not to mention his ongoing chorus throughout the Psalms singing the praises of memorizing the Scripture.

Put in its place, scripture memorization has many benefits for Christians. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that this discipline does not a holy Christian make.

I think Christians often beat themselves up over failing at a discipline. While disciplines are important, I think a broad perspective is important.

There are other ways to deposit the Bible into one’s mind other than straight memorization, and I’ll touch on that next.

Technorati Tags: Bible - scripture - memorization

If two ministries are equally committed to God, both listening for God’s direction, but one flounders and the other floats, what is the difference? One of the key differences will most likely be how each approaches people. Healthy ministry combines a commitment to the Lord with a respectful, caring approach to people.

This is not rocket science, but I’ve started ministries and been a part of ministry plants where it was assumed that the labels “prayer meeting” or “Bible study” would be enough to draw in the flock.

Ministry heavily depends on connecting with people where they are. Understanding people and accommodating to their context is not the same as compromising the message of the Gospel.

There are a series of questions we should ask such as: What are the demands on these people at work, within their families, and in the church community, if any? How much free time do they have? What are their struggles? What is our goal for this ministry or meeting? How can we keep a balance between structure and freedom so that God is able to work, but chaos is not inevitable?

My own experiences in the nonprofit world have demonstrated that structure cannot be imposed on a group. It must grow and adapt within a group. When a non-contextual structure is imposed, the group feels trapped, resulting in a loss of momentum and interest.

The group I speak of flourishes with a very informal leadership structure, loose mission statement (in fact, it’s not necessarily needed in a formal sense since everyone knows why we meet), and open participation within the group.  That format was planned based on the situation of the members and the longevity and health of the group illustrates the success of such an approach.

It’s not enough to just plan a Bible study or a prayer group. Whenever there are people involved–and unless your Saint Francis, that will be the case–our ministries face the challenge of meeting people where they are.

Seven years of schooling and I still haven’t quite found my place in life. Approaching my twenty-eighth birthday, I’m still not where I thought I’d be. That’s OK.

While attending a community group (as in a small home meeting of Christians) with Julie’s brother and sister-in-law, I heard many recent college grads struggling to find their places in life. Many were working at low-paying or dissatisfying jobs. Many had a glimpse of what they thought the future would look like, but didn’t know how to get there. I sensed a little frustration and a lot of struggle.

I was there and have been there. It’s hard to face your family after they’ve put you through college and say, “Thanks for the first-rate education, but now I don’t know what to do with myself.”

During my second year of college I settled on the path of ministry, becoming a pastor in particular, and therefore finished with a BA in Bible and English Literature–the Bible is literature after all. Then I shot straight into seminary and completed my Master of Divinity program in three and a half years.

The problem was that in the course of seminary I ended up ruling out an academic career or a career as a pastor. What else is an MDiv good for in the job market?

And that brings me to my point. Life is about the process of elimination. We have to go for the things God sets before us one step at a time, and as we move forward some things are ruled out, while others become more attractive. We can only pursue our options until they lead to another course or come to a dead end, requiring a whole new direction.

In my own case every major step I took planted a small seed that I hardly noticed. That seed led to something else that planted another small seed. For example, seminary led to serving in a church, that led me to nonprofit organizations and that led me to where I’m at right now, serving in the nonprofit sector.

In addition I went from aspiring to write academic theology books, to lay level nonfiction, and now to a mix of nonfiction and fiction. Everything seemed to change over time, but each step brought me a little closer to where I want to be. And I confess that even “where I want to be” changes over time.

That doesn’t mean I’m content, but I’m working on it. In the end we must find our contentment in our standing with God, but we can take comfort in knowing that he cares about where we’re heading and what we’re doing.

To all those recent grads who are struggling to find their place, I can offer this encouragement: it’s normal and it’s a long–if not life-long– process. Life is this strange mix of enjoying where we are, but also weeding out what doesn’t belong.